I will be studying in Nantes, France from January 7, 2009 until May 16, 2009. Hopefully I'll also get plenty of traveling done before, in between and after these dates. This blog has been created to keep all my family and friends updated on my goings ons. I promise to try not to be too boring.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Well here we go...

Due to helpful suggestions from several sources, I've decided that the easiest way to keep everyone updated on my foreign travels will be to post my fun pictures and stories here. This is a pre-emptive blog to prove to myself this works and get this done before I get over to France and forget to set something up.

So, I'm glad you all found me, hope you enjoy my stories and also that I don't bore you too much, I'm not much of a blogger, just thought I'd admit that right off the bat.I started writing a post script note below that ended up being a good sized paragraph long, so I figured it would fit here just fine instead, as the first story of my adventure. And before I start, it might be helpful for you to know that several of my close friends are already overseas studying in England for an entire academic year, and my plan was to leave a couple weeks before my program started and meet up with them to travel around Europe. However, this whole adventure thing is getting off to a rocky, bureaucratic start, in the form of French Student Visa applications. Firstly, to get a student visa in France you need pre-approval from Campus France, an online site that asks for your money and a couple forms and in return only sends you a message to your account on their site that says alright now you can apply for your visa. Don't ask, I don't know the point of this either, especially since then you send the exact same paperwork to the French consulate for your district of residence plus about 50 other forms. Here's a fun fact you never thought you'd need to know: The consulate of record for the state of Colorado lies in Los Angeles, CA. This is actually good news because it means I don't have to show up for an interview at the consulate and can instead send in my application by mail. But I'm getting a little far ahead of the story. Back to Campus France, I went online and filled out all the things they wanted from me regarding my anticipated Study Abroad experience, got the forms ready to send and then promptly forgot to go to the store and get the money order and send it along with the forms to Campus France. For two weeks I waited for the approval message before I realized my faux-pas. Now I was officially behind where I should have been with my application instead of slightly early. But I got it sent in and there was still time. I got my approval in a couple weeks and quickly sent of the printed out e-mail in duplicate along with every thing else they requested on the consulate website, also in duplicate, one original and one copy. Mistake #2, when a consulate's web site asks for a Financial Guarantee in the form of bank statements from your parents along with a letter signed and notarized stating they will support you for a certain amount of cash every month while you're abroad, do not assume that a letter sent to you from your program with big bold letters stating FINANCIAL GUARANTEE on top, and explaining that there's no need for parents to support you because a tuition has already been paid and you'll be living in a home stay will suffice. Because in fact it will not. The consulate really does want those bank statements and that letter, even if it isn't exactly truthful. Go figure? So a few of my forms got sent back to Colorado to Mom, another actual stroke of luck since she was the one who had to compile the missing documents and send them all back to LA. So the latest news is that she has sent them back to LA and hopefully they've made it by now. If I'm lucky my visa will make it back to me by December 22nd when my flight is currently scheduled to leave. If I'm not lucky I'll change my flight back a week or two depending on how unlucky I feel and my family's holiday travel plans, and I should be able to have my visa in time to leave by Jan. 6th so I can be on time for my orientation week, we get to go on field trips! Around FRANCE! If you can't tell by the exclamation points, I'm excited about this. Despite all this negative rocky started-ness, I can't wait to go, I just wish I knew for certain when I was leaving.In case I leave and don't end up coming around with the family to see everyone, and also to those of you I probably won't see anyway, Have a very Merry Christmas and the next time you hear from me I'll be across an ocean!Peace.

For Your Information

Update, 28 April, 2009: So photos for spring break will take a little bit of time, seeing as I need to wait for people to upload their photos/send them to me because my camera didn't focus well, I have a couple of my own, and you'll know which ones those are once the photos get linked!All my pictures have been linked above, so that you can easliy click and view my Picasa Web Albums, with all the photos and not the shorter edited versions that I'd put on Flickr. You don't even have to click a photo to see its full description, just hover your mouse over it. However, I suppose you can still click on it, if you want to see it bigger.